COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 11, 2013) – Two men’s U.S. beach volleyball teams advanced on Friday in the main draw at the FIVB Gstaad Grand Slam in Switzerland.

The men’s bracket wrapped up pool play and completed the first round of single elimination. No. 4 Phil Dalhausser (Ormond Beach, Fla.) and Sean Rosenthal (Redondo Beach, Calif.) were defeated in their last match of pool play, falling to 13th-seeded Nicolai Paolo and Daniele Lupo of Italy, 18-21, 21-19, 15-12. Dalhausser and Rosenthal finished pool play with a 2-1 record and in first place in Pool D, advancing them directly into round two. They will face Reinder Nummerdor and Richard Schuil of Netherlands, seeded No. 14, on Saturday.

In Pool F, Jake Gibb (Bountiful, Utah) and Casey Patterson (Van Nuys, Calif.) also dropped their final pool play match, losing a close three-setter to 11th-seeded Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of The Netherlands, 21-23, 21-19, 16-14. Gibb and Patterson finished atop Pool F with a 2-1 record, advancing to round two of single elimination where they will take on to No. 5 Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego of Brazil.

No. 20 Todd Rogers (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and Ryan Doherty (Toms River, N.J.) won their final pool play match, defeating the 29th-seeded Venezuelan tandem of Igor Hernandez and Jesus Villafañe, 21-19, 21-15, and improving their pool play record to 2-1. They advanced to round one of elimination as the third place team in Pool D. However, they fell to Cerutti and Rego in their elimination match, 21-13, 13-21, 15-7 and finished 17th.

The men will finish rounds two and three of the elimination phase on Saturday followed immediately by semifinal matches. The finals will take place on Sunday.

The women’s bracket completed all three rounds of elimination play on Friday and saw all four U.S. teams get knocked out. After going 3-0 in pool play, April Ross (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Kerri Walsh Jennings (Saratoga, Calif.) were unable to continue their momentum. In Round 2, the duo fell to No. 9 Maria Antonelli and Agatha Bednarczuk of Brazil, 21-17, 22-20 and finished tied for ninth.

“Overall it is really exciting,” Walsh Jennings said. “We each saw a glimpse of our potential and that’s amazingly exciting. I think we can be the most dominant side in the world and I think this is a great start. We played four really good teams who are playing really good volleyball and we hung in there.

“It was just unfortunate that we played such a great team with the deficit that we had and not pull it out because we were so close. But we are going to fine tune and I think the world is in trouble, respectfully.”

No. 25 Summer Ross (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Emily Day (Torrance, Calif.) won their second-round match, upsetting No. 5 Greta Cicolari and Marta Menegatti of Italy, 14-21, 21-19, 15-13. Ross and Day fell in Round 3 to No. 6 Liliane Maestrini and Barbara Seixas De Freitas of Brazil, 21-12, 21-11. Ross and Day finished ied for fifth place, which is the duo’s best finish in an FIVB World Tour event.

Jennifer Fopma (Bellflower, Calif.) and Brooke Sweat (Fort Myers, Fla.), seeded No. 21, also won their first elimination match in round two, defeating No. 15 Sanne Keizer and Marleen Van Iersel of The Netherlands, 21-15, 21-18. Fopma and Sweat advanced to round three, where they dropped their match to Germany’s 14th-seeded Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst, 21-18, 21-17. This is also Fopma and Sweat’s best finish in an FIVB World Tour event, as they finished tied for fifth place.